Caster.



W. J. MclNT YRE.

CASTER.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 10. 1915.

1 06,009. Patented Novf28, 1916.

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To all'w'hom itmdy-conc g 7 Be it known that I, WILLIAM J. MoIN- TYPE; asubject of the King of Great Britain, residing at Hartford; in thecou nty of Hart ford and State'of Connecticut, have invent ed certain newfland useful Improvements'in Cas'teisjof which 'thefollowin'g is a specification.

This invention relates to casters.

Amongthe" objects" of the invention is the provision of an article of this charac ter having simple" and effective means by" which, the samecan be securely heldwithin a socket and by which the necessarygyet limited movement of thebranches of a yokelik'e frame member can be insured.

The device possesses other features of novelty-and advantage whi'ch'with the fore going will be stated at length in the followin'g'de'scription whereinI will set forth in detail that one of the several convenient forms of'embodiment of the invention'which I 'havesele'cted for illustration in the drawingsaccompan'ying'and forming part of the present specification. I'do not restrictmyself to this particular disclosure; I may'depart therefrom" inseveral respects within the scope of 'the invention defined by the claims following said description.

Referring to said drawingsz Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the leg of apiece of furniture,' equipped"with a caster involving the invention, the caster being in elevation. Fig: 2 is an elevation of the caster removed from' said leg. Fig. 3 is a view as seen from the right in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a horizontal section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrow. 1 Figs. 5 and 6 are developed views of blanks'for the main and auxiliary frame members. 7

Like" characters refer to like" parts throughout the several views.

The wheel 2, the horn 3; the pintle 4 and the disk'5 may be of any suitable nature; for instance practically like the corresponding parts shown in Letters Patent No.

1,029,705 granted to me June 18, 1912 and to'whichi'reference may be had. The disk 5 is centrally enlarged to fit within the socket 6 in the leg 7'of 'a piece of furniture or the like in connection with which a casterlof the presentorother kind is usable. This:disk'supp'ortsthe leg or its equivalent and icenters the" caster therein. 7

The holding means in "the organization specifies... of Letters Patent.

messes. filed August 10, 1915. si iai No. 44,6?6.

shown comprises a main framemembeif as 8 and an auxlllary or supplemental frame member as 9, thelatter 1n thepresentcas'e,

constituting a base forthe former and both.

can 'be made in an inexpensive and ready manner: from sheet metal; will hereinafter more articularly appear. H Themam;

frame 'mem er' 8 1s approximatelyjthe form: of a yoke or of aninverted Urthe. sides or branches thereof beingj normally or initially parallel which is the preferrdconstruction. v An advantage follows this re-f lation in that the bodies of saidsidesd'o notcome into contact with 'thel wall'of the socket '6 as the [caster is inserted into or removed from said socket. I find that where the sides or branches of a yoke like frame' member diverge on downward or out ward' angles said bodiescome into contact,

with: the outer marginal portion of the socket or leg when the casteris introduced into said socket, the consequence being that theleg especially if -it be of metalywill digg p I I In addition to. thiswherethe sides are of the angulardis-Q position mentionedit is'diflicult and some times impossible to introduce the frame By making the into the frame member.

member into the socket. sides'of the frame member parallel in'the manner referredto, I can freely and readily pass said frame member into and as easily remove 1t from a socket. Moreover I'can secure the maxlmum holdlng effe'ct by. having1tl1e' legs initially in parallelism or practically so. From this it will be inferred that the frame member 8 is resilient. The bodies of the sides of, said frame member, however,

as will be obvious do not directly engage the wall of the socket, said sides having projections or lugs which properly subserve this function. The transverse portion of the main frame member 8 is approximately centrally perforated to receive the outerportion of the pintle l, the latter being headed' or expanded over the outer surface of saidtransverse portion to aid in holding the parts assembled. The projections or lugs of the sides, of said main frame merry. her 8 will be hereinafter more particularly described.

The auxiliary or supplemental frame able interlocked connection with the main frame member such connection being of such character as to permit a certain amount of free movement of the sides of the main frame member, this movement being limited in a positive manner as will hereinafter more particularly appear; The body of the auxiliary frame member 9 has at its ends the upstanding or vertical. flanges or wlngs 10 the necks 11 extending horizontally inward from these flanges or wings and being alined. At the inner ends of the necks 11 are transverse or T heads 12 presenting suitable stops to arrest the movement of the sides of the main frame member 8 after said sides have been contracted a predetermined yet comparatively limited distance.

. The sid'es'or branches of the frame member the necks or reduced portions 11 into the reopposite each other.

spective slots 13 and then free said sides when the latter will at once spring against the flanges or wings 10 into their virtually parallel relation. If the other parts of the caster are connected together the pintle will then be passed through the coaxial or registering holes in the two frame members and headed at its upper end as already explained.

The sides or branches of the main frame member 8 as shown, are longitudinally slit and the stock at opposite sides of the slits is expanded or bowed outward to form projections or lugs 14 which as shown are directly It is these projections or lugs which by engaging the wall of the socket 6, retain the caster in position. The said projections are between their ends preferably flattened as at 15, the flattened surfaces diverging downward, the result being that the projections together taper upward. Owing to the fact that the outer sides of the lugs are flattened in the manner set forth it is an exceedingly simple matter to introduce the caster into the socket 6 or its equivalent, this condition being further aided by the fact that the outer surfaces of said projections diverge downward. While there is naturally some resiliency in said projections I do not rely upon this to hold the caster in place but primarily utilize the main frame member 8 for this purpose. There is as I observe some resiliency in the projections and in a measure they aidin attaimng the desired object. The main holding, however, is done by the sides of the main frame member 8. It will be noted that the ends of the projections 15 are integral with the sides or branches of the main,

frame member 8.- I have mentioned that said sides are normally substantially in parallelism. It will be clear therefore that if the caster be introduced into the socket 6, the projections 14.- will engage the wall of said socket and as the caster is pushed home and as the flattened faces of said projections ride along the wall of the socket the sides of the frame member 8 are caused to approach each other or to. be contracted and thus exert a powerful influence or reaction against the projections to thrust the latter solidly and substantially against said Wall, the thrust in fact being practically at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the frame member.

In Fig. 5 I illustrate a suitable blank 16 from which the main frame member can be formed up while Fig. 6 is in view representing a convenient blank 17 from which the auxiliary frame member can be formed up.

The blank 16 can be longitudinally slit as at 18 and the stock at opposite sides of the slits punched out to form the projections to which I have referred while the blank 16 can be bent on itself along the transverse parallel dotted lines 19 to produce the yoke like frame member 8. The blank 17 can be folded along the parallel lines 21 to produce the wings or flanges l0 and then the neck or reduced portions 11 with their T heads can be bent at right angles to the wings or flanges.

In some cases the frame member 8 can be associated with the other elements of the caster in a manner different from that shown and described.

What I claim is:

1. A caster comprising a horn provided with a wheel and with a pintle, and a yokelike resilient member connected with and straddling the pintle, the branches of the yoke-like member bein flat, freely movable inwardly and outwar ly and having outwardly extending projections on their outer faces between the sides thereof said projections being cut from said branches ends being integral with said branches, the outer surfaces of the projections diverging downwardly and said projections acting to space said branches from the wall of a socket into which said yoke-like resilient member is introduced.

and their,

its

iii)

2. A caster comprising a horn provided standing flanges interlocked with the sides.

of the main frame member and-provided with means for limiting contracting movement of said sides.

3. A caster comprising a pintle, a main frame member of yoke-like form and resilient, connected with and straddling said caster, the sides of said frame member being approximately in parallelism and being provided with integral outwardly-extending projections on the exterior thereof, an auxiliary frame'member erforated to receive said pintle and provided with upstanding flanges equipped with inwardly-extending necks having T heads, said sides bein notched in their lower edges to receive sai necks.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM J. MQINTYRE.

Witnesses HEATH SUTHERLAND, Orro HILTON.

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0. 

